Island



(No Model.)

OLARNoL-D.

LIFE SAVING APPARATUS.

Patented July 14, 1885.

` DWENTOR.

ATTORNEYS.

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UNITED "STATES PATENT OFFICE,

OLNEY ARNOLD, OF FAWTUCKET, RHODE ISLAND.

LIFE-SAVING APPARATUS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 322,149, dated July 14, 1885. y

Application filed November 8, 1884. (No model.)

. To @ZZV/71,0111, it may concern/.,-

Be it known that L'OLNEY ARNOLD, a citizen of the United States, residing at Pawtucket, in the county of Providence and State of Rhode Island, have invented certainnew and useful Improvements in Life-Saving Appara tus, of which the following is a description.

Figure l is a plan view of the apparatus; Fig. 2, a vertical longitudinal section; Fig. 3, a view'illustrating the use of my invention, and Fig. 4 a view of the means for connecting a lantern to the kite-cord.

My invention relates to apparatus for saving life by carrying a life-line to the shore from a stranded vessel. It consists in the combination, with a kite, of a small boat of special construction, provided with a spool or bobbin carrying the life-line, one end of which is made fast to the ship, while the kite is made to drag the boat to the shore, the said boat being of such construction as to adapt it to increased or diminished resistance in the water, dependent upon the force of the wind and pull of the kite, and which same construction permits of the guiding of the boat in directions out of alignment with the direction of the wind, as hereinafter more fully described.

In the drawings, A represents thekite, which may be of any approved construction. Bis its cord, which at one end is attached to the boat C. This boat is formed with a water-tight cover, C', which is fastened down by screws.

Journaled in bearings in the boat, and arranged longitudinally therein, is a spool, D, around which is wound a life-line, E, of sufficient length to cover the probable distance from ship to shore. In the cover C, above this spool, is journaled a sheave or pulley whose flanges are countersunk in its bearings, so that the line cannot get jammed between its end and its bearing, and over which guidepulley the line E passes, and whence it emerges from the boat through a hole in the rear end of the cover, the end of said line, which passes out the stern of this boat, being designed to be attached to the stranded vessel.

When the line is to be carried to the shore, the kite is given to its Hight, the boat is launched, and the pull of the kite is made to draw the boat to the shore, which causes the line contained within the boat to be paid out, thereby establishing communication with the shore.

As the wind may vary'in strength, and it is necessary, in order to keep the kite up, to have acertainamount of tension on the cord, I adapt the boat to supply a greater or less amount of resistance to the kite, as follows: I arrange upon each side of the boat, about midships, a wing, F, which is hinged upon a vertical axis in bearings offsetting from the boat, and these wings are adapted to be adjusted to any desired angle to the boat, and maintained in this position by brace bars G, hinged at their back ends to the rear portion of the boat, and provided with a series of holes, c, throughwhich aset-screw, Yb, passes tofasten them to the wings. Now, by adjusting thesewings toward a right-angular position to the boat the resist-ance is increased, and sufficient tension is maintained on the cord to sustain the kite in a moderately-light wind. For a strong wind the wings are set more obliquely to the rear, so that the increased strength of the wind may be compensated for by a less resistance of the boat.

In some cases the boat may be sent ashore at points remote from human habitations, and it, in that case, would be necessary to provide means for automatically fastening the line to the shore. For this purpose I provide an anchor, H, the shank or main bar of which has an offsetting perforated lugor eye, c. On the stern of the boat-cover O', also, are formed or attached two hook-shaped lugs, d d, between which the shank of the anchor is placed, and

which shank is held firmly by a block, e, fti ting beneath the rearwardly-projecting hooks of the lugs d d. The rope, wound on the spool in the boat, passes through the block e, and also through the eye c of the anchor, which eye on the anchor is much larger than the hole in the block, and upon the end of the rope, wound upon the spool, are fastened two blocks, f and g, of which f is smaller than g. Of these blocks f is small enough to pass through the eye cof the anchor, but is too large to pass through the hole in the block e, while g is too large to pass through the eye of the anchor, and prevents the latter frombecoming detached from the line. Now, when the boat has reached shore, as the line is paid out the first and smaller block, f, passes through the eye c of the anchor, and striking the block e dislodges it and pulls it out from beneath the hooked lugs d d, and allows the anchor to drop clear ofthe boat, and the block g on the end of the line following cannot get through the eye c of the anchor, and makes a firm connection be tween the anchor and line, and as the former is firmly embedded in the sand or mud the shore end ofthe line is thus automatically made fast, so that the life-line can be used for reaching the shore. Y

In order to locate the kite at night a lantern, I, of light Weight, is attached to thekitecord, and is connected to it by two light converging rods, J J, which, when the lantern rests upon the ground, prevents the cord from resting above thelantern and becoming burned.

This device is designed to be used, mainly, on ship-board, and furnishes means for estab lishing connection with the shore Without as,

sistance from the shore, and also permits the boat to be guided in other directions than straight before the Wind, for by setting -one Wing out and the other in the boat may be made to take a short cut to the shore, instead of scudding before the Wind obliquely to the shore. Y'

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new isl. The combination of a kite, its lyingcord, and a boat attached thereto and provided with a spool orreel, with a life-line for attachment to the "essel, as and for the purpose described.

2. The combination ofa kite, its dying-cord, a boat vattached thereto and provided with a spool or reel, with'a life-line for attachment to the vessel, and means for varying the resistance of the boat to the kite, substantially as shown and described.

3. The combination ofa kite, its dying-cord, a boat attached thereto and provided with a spool or reel, with life-line for attachment to the vessel, an anchor through which the lifeline rceves, and tripping device attached to the boat forY disconnecting the anchor from the boat and automatically securing the shore end of the life-line, as described.

4. The combination, With the kite, its cord, and the boat, of the lateral Wings hinged about a vertical axis to the sides of the boat, and hinged and perforatedbraces, with set-screws for adjusting the position ofthe Wings, as described.

5. The combination, with the kite, its cord, the boat having hook-lugs, d el, and the spool and life-line, of the anchor having eye c, the block e, and the blocksf and g, fixed on the end of thelife-line, as shown and described.

EDWD. W. BYRN, SoLoN (l. KnMoN. 

